Casting Lacey by Elle Spencer: Book Review

Quinn Kincaid has known for a while that she’s a lesbian and she’s ready to let the world in on her secret. But as the lead on a wildly popular legal drama and her marriage to a man having only recently ended, she fears the world may not be ready to hear it. Luckily for Quinn, her publicist has a plan—they’ll hire another actress to pretend to be her girlfriend, one who’ll be happy to sign a non-disclosure agreement and take the money and surefire boost to her own career.

Lacey Matthews lost everything that mattered to her when she came out publicly—both her girlfriend and the soap opera role she’d had since childhood. It’s been a year and she’s learned the hard way that LA isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be, since she’s still looking for work. Quinn Kincaid’s proposal might be absurd (seriously? Pretend to be her girlfriend only to break up a reasonable time after Quinn comes out?), but Lacey can’t ignore the money, the networking opportunities, or the chance to move out of the cheap hotel she’s living in and into Quinn’s luxurious guest house. So what if Quinn is incredibly hot? A job is a job, right?

The Characters

I loved Quinn and Lacey, even if I sometimes wanted to shake them. Lacey is super rude and snarky to Quinn at first, but I enjoyed watching her warm up as they get to know each other. Quinn is just lovely and I was a big fan of hers for most of the book, except for the few times when a conversation would have been more helpful than her instinctual reaction. They have such amazing chemistry, though, and I loved reading about them falling in love.

The Writing Style

At 374 pages, Casting Lacey is quite a bit longer than most of the contemporary romances I’ve been reading lately, and the extra length was put to excellent use. The characters have a chance to really get to know each other, becoming friends and caring for each other before their feelings turn romantic. It also allows for a whole lot of angst that keeps things interesting.

The Pros

With a fake relationship, a rich girl/poor girl situation, and a celebrity romance, Casting Lacey has a lot of my favourite themes!

It also has a perfect cover for this story.

The Cons

Like I mentioned above, it was a little frustrating that some of their conflict could have been handled with a conversation.

The Conclusion

Casting Lacey is a compelling, sexy, angsty romance that I highly recommend to anyone who’s into fake relationship books or celebrity romances. It kept me sucked in and I’m looking forward to seeing more from Elle Spencer in the future.

Excerpt from Casting Lacey by Elle Spencer

God, what a mess! Lacey groaned at herself. She should’ve left the second Quinn revealed her intentions. So why the hell was she still sitting here? Sure, she needed the money, but not that badly. As for the fame, Lacey was no Quinn, but she still had her fans. Plenty of them. And yet, she was still here, actually considering this absurdity. “I take it I’ll be playing the part of the dumped girlfriend eventually?”

“Yes. We’ll break up and we’ll both move on. Everyone will know your name and I’ll start dating. Maybe, if I’m lucky, I’ll even find the real thing one day. It’s win-win.”

“And what do we tell the people close to us?” Lacey asked.

“You start now. You tell them you met me and I was super nice,” Quinn said with a smile.

“So, I’d be acting right off the bat?”

Quinn’s eyes widened in surprise. “Damn, you’re sassy!”

Lacey set the wine glass back down. If she kept drinking, she wouldn’t be able to drive back down the steep, hairpin-curved road that brought her here. “Sorry. You caught me on a bad week and this whole thing just reeks of everything I hate about this business.”

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